


Cycle-Locked

by HeresyIncarnate



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Additional Warnings Apply, Ancestors, Canon In Its Own Right., Don't Have to Know Canon, F/M, ITS TOO SOON TO SAY ANYTHING FOR CERTAIN!, Ok We Might Reference Canon, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Round and Round We Go, SBURB/SGRUB, Throw The Canon Out The Window, Where We Stop, You Will Eventually Know, non-canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-08
Updated: 2014-10-23
Packaged: 2017-12-31 21:16:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 4,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1036488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeresyIncarnate/pseuds/HeresyIncarnate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In an alternate universe, there is an alternate session, and it repeats itself in a vicious cycle of ectobiological and frog-making fuck ups.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. >???:Begin

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



You are pretty sure your name isn’t ???.  
What it is, however, is currently unimportant.  
The only thing people need to know is that you are merely an Observer… not to be confused with the Overseer, but you digress, he will come into play later. You have recently unshelved several dusty old tomes, and plan to read them. One of them labels itself as a “sequel” for the other, while the third is “reference material” for that.  
You fully intend to begin reading even if you know this story by heart.  
You have read it 811 times before… you do however have reason to believe this one will be different.  
You turn to the first page of the first book reinitializing the cycle for the last time.


	2. >???:Wake up.

You open your eyes. 

The light shining in your window is blinding, but it means its time to wake up, so that was the idea. Your name is Leonard Stromak, but you usually go by Leny. Today, November 8th, is one of your friends 16th birthdays. You might want to bother her later, but she might not even be awake right now. If she doesn’t get the message when it arrives she’ll never get it.   
For some reason, you deign to look around your room and make note of everything there, your laptop sits on your desk in the corner of the room, having been in this house a while you still have yet to even get a chair… your dad is too much of a cheapskate hippy to get any except for one in his room... on account of him wanting to talk to one of your other friends mothers at obscene hours of the night. Disgusting. You hear them making kissy faces at each other through the webcams most nights when you go to sleep, why must your dad’s room be just next door? It’s even worse since the mother in question lives across the street... back on the topic of your room, you only have a small bed, plain gray covers, and a book on famous lightning storms sitting on your wardrobe. The window outside leaves a great view when theres a thunderstorm, one of your favorite things in the world, however as was previously established, the sun shines bright, and if you don’t move you think you might go blind. You get up and walk over to your wardrobe, an old fashioned thing like something out of a C.S. Lewis book. 

You weren’t disappointed when it turned out to be a normal wardrobe.   
Nope.   
Not at all. 

You put on your standard articles of clothing, A black shirt, covered by a gray hoodie, gray pants and black shoes (You don’t really have an interesting color scheme ok?), and look out the window. Disregarding the sound your computer makes that tells you a “friend” is trying to get a hold of you. The sun glimmers on the sidewalk and the leaves rustle on the trees. You pull a hand back through your shaggy black hair, cut short in back and longer in front, if you were to lay it down you might get accused of being an emo… for some reason, you can tell that today, the 8th of November, is going to be an absurdly long day.


	3. >???:Finish Writing

You look up from your computer screen.

The light shining in your window tells you that it is morning… you have been awake and writing all night. Your name is Elaine Darling, you prefer Elly. If you remember correctly, your friends birthday is today. You fully intend to bother her once you get this printed, you like to keep a full copy of every draft of your novels.  
Glancing out the window you think you catch sight of your neighbor peering out of his window, you wave at Leny but he doesn’t seem to notice, perhaps he’s still too tired to notice you. Oh well. You spin your desk seat around and take in your room. Your desk itself is in the corner next to the door, and opposite your bed, which you keep exceptionally clean. You have a bookshelf in the other corner accompanied by a reading chair and lamp. Its more of a formality, in any case, you wrote half the books on it and have read through the others several times. You like to write about ghouls, ghosts, and goblins, and have a small affinity for vampires. next to the bookshelf, right between it and your bed, is a small dresser where you keep your clothes neatly folded. Nothing terribly interesting about that.

Especially because you don’t keep any vampire romance novels in the top drawer.  
Nope.  
None at all.

You put on a long sleeved black button up shirt and a white tie, covering them with a red suit jacket. You put on a short black skirt and some gray stockings, finishing off your look with black dress shoes. As you look at the sky outside of your window, you pull your long messy hair into a high, and equally messy ponytail, leaving plenty of hair on the sides to look cool. You should probably go to sleep but feel refreshed, as though, compared to today, last night was absurdly short.


	4. >???:Continue spying.

You switch tabs on your browser.

You are just about to head to lunch, but it looks like Leny just woke up, and switching to your hack on Elly’s laptop camera you can see she’s finally moving around and not just sitting at her computer… like you have been doing… your first name is irrelevant, and everybody calls you Opus, Opus Viewien, a nickname which you have fervently enforced. Today is your girlfriends birthday, you want to send her good wishes, but you have yet to see her approach her computer, she even woke before you for once, which is unusual since you have kept tabs on your friends sleep cycles.  
You decide to investigate around your room a bit, no sense rushing off to get your ass handed to you by your bro, you might be hungry, but not for a spear in the face. You suppose you could pull your two axes off of the wall, but watching and manipulating is much more fun than combatting… and you have no idea what tactic your bro would use today. He has removed all of your cameras from his room and has yet to make his presence known. Your bed is simple, you rarely spend time in it anyways, falling asleep right here in this chair. You keep on your desk two or three objects of divination, which you are almost certain are complete bullshit, a magic 8 ball, obviously a hoax, a magic cue ball, also utterly false, and a… doomsday clock… you find it questionable but possibly more accurate than the others, given that when you got it a couple years ago it was labelled for *gasp* years and months, and now its counting down to hours… moderately alarming actually, but probably an elaborate prank. You lean against the couch in the opposite corner of the room.

You have no other comfortable furniture other than this couch.  
Seriously.  
None at all.

Further stalling for time, you contemplate your wardrobe. a tasteful purple shirt with an unbuttoned black button up over it, both short sleeved, black jeans, and some sweet black sneakers with purple laces. You keep your medium length black hair well combed. Lunch is just down the stairs but you might actually wait for your Girlfriend to get on… shame you can’t get to her with her just down the hall…this is going to be a long wait.


	5. >???:Practice with the Harp

No.  
God damn it no.  
You hate the harp. Your sister plays the harp. YOU play the Violin.

Your name is Lyra Harpius, your sister takes more after the family name, but your sister was also born with functioning eyes(which you have been told are massively odd in that they don’t have pupils, but you don’t know what that would mean for anything at all, she sees everything with a tint of yellow apparently), so you’re a little jealous of her. In case it wasn’t obvious, you are blind. But you don’t let that stop you. Today is your 16th birthday and there is no way in hell you are letting her get in your way. You navigate your way by listening to how the sound of your and other people’s footsteps bounce off of walls and the floor… woot echolocation bullshit. It helps that you can taste sounds, your favorite symphony is that which is played when you eat lemon cake… you have no sense of colors though.  
You return to your room (just as Opus finally leaves his, but he’s too far away for you to know that.) And make your way over to your bookshelf… a bit of a piss poor gift you got from your boyfriends brother last year, but hey, you can keep your violin on it so it works. You keep your room clean, and your bed is situated neatly next to you. You have a laptop computer of some sort, and use it with merely two drawbacks. 1: You have to use text to speech when people are talking to you. and 2: You have no way of knowing what your monitor looks like. (you have been told that there are a bunch of images of this fellow named Nicholas Cage, but you only use pesterchum and play rhythm games, if somebody placed a bunch of icons the didn’t mess with those links.  
You straighten the orange velvet cloth that acts as a belt for your simple short sleeved black dress. Make sure you’re orange shoes are on right, and brush your long and wavy hair that curls up at the ends. You are told that orange suits you, although, as previously mentioned, you have no idea what the fuck it looks like. You hear the sound of a harp playing in the other room, you are surprised your other roommates aren’t complaining.  
You should probably explain something, you, your sister, Opus, and his brother all share an apartment in one of two “dorm buildings” of “Colonel Turtle University For Gifted Young Adults.” Night dorm to be precise. Roughly 100 students go here, so there’s plenty of free room. You’re two other friends, including your BFF Elly, live on the other side of the country in some suburb. You try not to miss her too much.

And you don’t buy all of her books as soon as the come out despite lack of sight.  
Nope.  
Not in the slightest.

Really though, you are bored off your rocker, what should you do?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> O Hai Gaise If U Want U Can Command My Chars To Do Shit K Thnx Bai


	6. >Opus: Check the fridge for something to eat.

You return to being yourself… not that you were anybody else. You could probably wait all day and Lyra wouldn’t get on, too busy having a birthday party in some other dorm or something… ok, that’s a lie, but a valid excuse in your mind for why you gave up on waiting in your room for somebody just down the hall. Besides, as said you were kind of hungry.  
You exit your room into a hallway, on the other side of your room is your brothers room, you are about to head down the hall into the central room of the apartment, which is comprised of a kitchen, living room, and dining room all in one, when you notice a wire strung across the hall. It isn’t attached to anything obvious, but you can see it loop around the corner, probably in order to drop something on you… such as a spear… you gingerly step over it to find that OH GOD. There was another tripwire higher up that you didn’t notice, outsmarted by your brother again you fall down unceremoniously as a bucket of water dumps itself onto your head. Landing on the ground you trip the other wire, and a small chute opens up in the ceiling that you know for a fact wasn’t there before, dropping a trident right next to your head.  
You hear a chuckling from the hall and see your bro eating a sandwhich… wait… is that… oh hell no, he ate the last of the meat! You jump up and charge at him, he nimbly sidesteps you, opening his door and causing you to crash into it, ouch. You get up quickly and narrowly avoid getting a different trident stabbed into your gut, ducking back into your room to retrieve your weapons. The nearby harp playing stops, and you can just imagine Lyra’s sis coming out to berate your bro who merely would chuckle before pulling a couple planks of wood out of his room and repairing the damage, nobody knows where he gets all of his supplies, since he rarely leaves his room, he just seems to have everything he needs. It’s a bit infuriating, although the same can be said about where Lyra’s sis gets all of her harps, different sizes, different tones, in any case, it looks like your Strife is over before it even starts, thankfully, trying to open your door it keeps running into something jammed into the ground however, looks like you are back where you started… and that always makes you unreasonably uncomfortable.


	7. >Lyra: Investigate ruckus

Nah. It's probably nothing anyways.

Your sister and Opus's brother tend to resolve most issues peacefully, although you are kind of annoyed that you rarely get to see your boyfriend despite living in the same god damn apartment. You would think his brother would cut the crap for your birthday but nope, assault with a deadly object as usual. You resolve to instead send a message Opus's way through pesterchum.

 

sightlessSoundbender began pestering omnipresentRingleader

SS: Are you ok?

OR: Yes I suppose so

OR: Bastard took the last of the meat though

SS: Um, no he didn’t.

OR: I know what I saw and I see all

OR: There is no more meat in the fridge

SS: Well, I don’t SEE anything and I know that my sis just pulled some ham out of the freezer.

OR: . . .

OR: I keep forgetting we have that

SS: Isn’t that like the only place besides everybody elses rooms that you don’t have cameras?

SS: You should keep better track of your weaknesses.

SS: Especially when those weaknesses entail the location of food.

OR: Yeah perhaps

SS: Look try to meat(hehe) me in the common room, and we’ll both have a sandwich whilst talking about overbearing siblings.

OR: WAIT

sightlessSoundbender has ceased pestering omnipresentRingleader

 

You were going to bug Elly (BFFsies for Lyfe) about not sending you a message yet, but this is more urgent. Your sweet little darling with massive privacy issues needs your help (and maybe you just want to snuggle with him damnit. It is your birthday afterall.) You exit your room, just in time to hear Opus’s bro return to his room, a couple tridents jammed in the hallway diverting your sound. It would be a wonder you guys are allowed to stay here if not for the fact that this college likes to pick up freaks and weirdos. I mean seriously, lets look at you four. A blind synesthesiac, a musical prodigy with freaky eyes, a guy who can see several seconds into the future (and uses that skill to beat up his little bro. Like seriously, that guy is extra fucked up,) and his younger brother who is an awesome hacker and always has cameras on hand (lord knows what he uses them for you are certain he couldn’t be spying on people just maintaining security surveillance on every part of the house and not your rooms certainly because he’s just a nice person and not a creep ahahahahahaha.) Noticing the trident blocking Opus’s door you are about to go help when you notice HER. Oh god. Your sister looked at you. She’s going to try to convince you to take up harp lessons. Oh dear oh no oh dear oh no. You can’t return to your room now, she saw you, leaving after just appearing like that would be mean, you can’t go to help Opus either because SHES in the way oh dear lord that art in the fluffy clouds what are you going to do?

 


	8. >Lyra: BE SOMEBODY ELSE ANYBODY ELSE

You are now Leny, and you think it’s about time that you got some breakfast, but first a chat with your good friend across the street however, she’s been trying to bug you while you stared at the sun and sidewalk like some introspective fuckwit.

horrificNovelist began pestering crashingShockwave  
HN: Morning sleepyhead!  
HN: Sleep well?  
HN: Oy.  
HN: I see you over there.  
HN: You shouldnt stare at the sun you know.  
HN: Having one blind best friend is enough thank you.  
CS: oh shit  
CS: sorry, i just fucking spaced off there  
HN: Hey, thats ok, did you get the package yet?  
CS: i havent checked oh FUCK  
HN: Really man? :/  
HN: How can you send Opus the game for him to do some weird coding shit to make it blind person friendly...  
HN: if you dont even know if you got that copy you ordered off of that seedy market place you talk about so much?  
CS: look im going to check in a moment  
CS: also, mist is a perfectly viable market site  
CS: it is the primary distribution source of faucet games company  
HN: Sure it is.  
HN: Well, Im off to get some coffee and doughnuts, you should do similar.  
CS: hey  
CS: dont go overboard on the coffee  
CS: i read somewhere it stunts your growth  
HN: Glad to see you care, ciao!  
CS: yeah bye  
horrificNovelist ceased pestering crashingShockwave

. . . You might have a crush on the girl next door . . .

Whatever, you need to head downstairs and get some cereal or something in your stomach, what with it being like… 6:00 in the morning? You want to get down there, eat, and check the mail before your dad wakes up because fuck that guy and his pacifistic ecoshit about not drinking too much milk with your cereal... and recycling the mail as soon as he gets it… you really HAVE to get there before him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Greetings, Official Announcement to any and all persons watching this... my computer is dead! I am forced to use my phone and similar devices, so updates will be *even slower* if that's possible.


	9. >Elly: Get some Bagelz

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember how I said I would update it when I felt like it?   
> ....   
> ....   
> ....   
> Hi.

Oh my god he is just too cute, telling you to slow down on the caffeine, who does he think he is? You head down to your kitchen after much consideration, your mom probably isn't even awake so there's no need to worry about her harsh but energetic book reviews, yay! You find yourself some bagels to chow down on, you also pour yourself some coffee… just one cup for now, you feel pretty awake and probably don’t even need it, but caffeine is your addiction, and addiction is a very powerful thing. You manage to eat your food without and crazy shenanigans, no spears falling from the ceiling, no swords coming out of the walls, and no maces crashing the table into little tiny bi- your mom just showed up and put her mace down on the table, causing a large splinter to break off one of the sides… so much for that… oh look, she’s got your most recent book, The Rebellion, Part 3: Jade. You spend the next hour deflecting questions and reassuring your mother that the "crazy broad" with the massive ponytail and a Mace does not in fact represent her, even if you are almost certain that you did in fact intend it to be you. You might not be able to lift a mace yet, but your mother keeps enough of them and maybe you just want to be a hero that saves all of her friends from a terrible fate DAMMIT… You said that last word out loud… shit… as punishment for "swearing" you need to wash the dishes and get the mail, and then spend the rest of the day in your room… good morning world. You’ll get to the dishes right away.


	10. >Opus: Ok, those two are being boring, looks like you are Lyra’s last hope. Now break out of your room and be all heroic and shit.

God help her…

Wait, why did you just think that? Who needs help? And why did you bring God into this? You don’t even believe in god… unlike Leny and his Dad… speaking of, looks like he’s about to head out of his room, you momentarily notice that your girlfriend is out in the hall, but that's not as interesting as Leny right now, there are benefits to keeping an eye on everybody, one of which being that you always know when shit is actually getting done and when it’s just sitting around. From your knowledge of mail times and delivery of packages from America all the way here to Russia, you are reasonably certain that he should be getting his package today. One copy of the brand spanking new "SBurb" game. So new… he’s technically not supposed to have it yet, Faucet and their “Early Release” comes through again. Even if you think that you four might be the only ones silly enough to play a game about “Virtual Home Manipulation” and “Breathtaking Realism,” and one of you can’t even see. That’s OK. You think you have an idea on how to get it to work for her. It will be a difficult hack, but with Elly providing most of the funds, Leny purchasing the item through his shifty dealings, and you hacking it to work for Lyra, you have a feeling that the game she has been gushing about for a couple months (each gush proceeded with a “woe is me for I am blind”) would make a pretty kick-ass group present, and by sharing the one copy, you can all play together! HELL YES! Now if only you could get out of your room again... everything would be perfect!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, did I not mention these crazy kids were in Russia? Why would you think otherwise? Not everything interesting happens in the U.S. you know. (-uO)


	11. >Lyra: Abscond!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is... is that an update? I... I almost forgot what they looked like... It's so... beautiful...

No no no thats not a solution! She already saw you! You can HEAR the movement of the air as her mouth opens to say…  
“Hey, going to help me get the punk out of his room?”  
You stand there frozen and turned towards her for about a minute. You would probably still be doing so if not for the fact that you became aware that she moved right in front of your face, and is poking you in the nose.  
“So… is that a no? Look, he’s your boyfriend, and given that it’s your birthday, I’m inclined to let you do whatever you want. Even if you still refuse to take up the harp.”  
Ok… maybe your sister is pretty cool… she might be overbearing usually, but she does occasionally give you room to grow. You give a small nod in affirmation, and she helps you pull the trident out of the way of Opus’s door. You are about to thank her when she speaks up again.  
“Oh, and make sure to ask if you need a condom.”  
NOPE NOPE NOT COOL NOT COOL AT ALL.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...and yet so very short... oh sweet sorrow. Commands are open as always, that I might get this show on the road furthermore.


	12. >Observer: Get interrupted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blatant self gratifying silliness.

Wait what? Why would that happ-  
“Yo, you awake bro?”  
God damn it Follower can you not see I’m in my narrative format?  
“Follower? Not calling me by my name eh? Are you The Apostate or The Observer right now?”  
Observer, now shoosh and lets get back to th-  
“It’s more fun when you’re messing with the mortals you know, then I get to be “The Believer,” thats fun… we should be trolls more often!”  
… Sister Dearest…  
“Oh no, last time you called me that you forced us to be Cherubs, I do NOT want to be a Cherub, man, can we not do this?”  
I would advise you to stop interrupting my Narrative…  
“But I want to have blood again! Immortality is no fun! Let’s get wild, besides, you’ve been staring at that page of the book for like, two or three months!”  
What, No It was just five minutes…  
“Seriously? I watched you. You just sat there. You sat there and didn’t move.”  
Look. What do you want?  
“To cause havoc, have fun, perform random chaotic and destructive actions as is my nature?”  
Fine, you want an adventure of your own?  
“Sure! Can we use my real name?”  
Hmmm… Maybe…  
“HELLZ YES. LETS DO IT.”  
BEGIN INTERMISSION 1  
“Why are you shouti-”  
I SAID BEGIN INTERMISSION 1.

**> I1: Earth In Your Hands(Claws?)**

Your name is Ditras U- wait… that’s not quite your real name… looks like you don’t quite get what you want, oh well. You stand over a scale model of the globe… either that or you’re a giant and you actually have the earth in your room, you can never be sure with your brother. In any case, you want to have fun, and you want the *likely nonexistent* audience to tell you how. What do?


	13. >Ditras: Juggle The Earth.

You momentarily (read spend two months worth of time) consider playing catch with the model thing… but theres nobody else to catch it, so really you would be better off trying to juggle.  
…  
…   
twenty crushed mountain ranges later you remind yourself why you do not juggle. To be honest though… it wasn’t just you. Every time you caught the globe the ground felt like it was shaking. Probably nothing… which means it most certainly is something. You look out the window and see that not only is this not your home plain… you can see the rubble of a crushed mountain range that looks a lot like the one on your globe… that was close. It seems that on top of giving you power over the earths fate, your brother has deigned to place you on it. You might need to be more careful, you like blowing shit up, but dying isn’t fun. Wait… oh great, now the model is ooding magma out of one of the cracks… looks like it’s somewhere in Russia though… that suburb is in amazing detail… hey! Burning houses! Burning houses are always fun!


	14. >Observer: Continue reading while she's distracted!

Gladly. Let's see...  
You reach your hand out to catch her...  
No that's too far in...  
He scrambles to save his book from the fire...  
Nope, still not there yet although I don't remember any fires in any other read through... interesting...  
And cracking your knuckles you begin to code...  
Uh uh... Ah! Here we were!


	15. >Leny: Get the mail already!

Something tells you that you had a great stroke of luck in avoiding uncomfortable encounters... your dad was asleep in his room and you just went downstairs, admired the painting of Zeus fighting Thor, and got the mail. Further on the lucky side of things, you got a package containing a usb-drive labelled as "SBurb" by a piece of tape. You slip it into your pocket and sort through all the remaining mail... junk... junk... taxes... junk... seriously? You live right across the street what's with the mail? Choosing not to open the Jade envelope, seems to be Elly's moms favorite color, you bring everything in and place it on the kitchen table in front of your dad, who is sipping at a cup of tea, he must have woke up while you were outside. You proceed to have a civil conversation which contains no more than 4 swear words on your part. Your dad let's you head back to your room and you plug the usb-drive into your computer. Wasn't that simple... now to send the files... not a lot actually, just one... to Opus. You would install but apparently it will probably work better if you are all running the blind compatible hack. Opening up pesterchum, you begin a conversation with the jerk.

crashingShockwave began pestering omnipresentRingleader  
CS: ok asshat  
CS: i got your files right here  
OR: I never doubted you would.  
OR: Saw you coming up with the drive.  
CS: choosing to ignore that  
CS: just get this shit working so we can all play it I guess  
OR: It won't be long.  
OR: Provided you actually send me the file.  
CS: shit  
CS: here  
crashingShockwave shared a file: SBurb.exe

**Author's Note:**

> Because I can... and I was also inspired by a certain memorable hound. (cough cough unforgettableCanine cough cough) I know the beginning, I know how I kind of want it to end, the real question is how do I get there and how many monkey wrenches will get thrown in my plan.
> 
> EDIT: Feel free to give commands at practically any point, I will try to run with them and, if I failed to say this, monkey wrenches in my plan are good.


End file.
